ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, August 17, 1996              TAG: 9608190042
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: A-6  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY STAFF WRITER

COLLEGE NAMES DIRECTORS FOR DOCTOR ASSISTANT PROGRAM

A GRADUATE of the two-year program can do routine physicals, sew up superficial wounds, and treat hypertension and infections.

Roanoke's College of Health Sciences on Friday named directors for the state's first physician assistant degree program, which is designed to extend health services to rural areas.

Douglas R. Southard, a physician assistant with a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University and a doctorate in clinical psychology from Virginia Tech, will be program director.

Dr. Mark Greenawald, assistant professor for clinical family medicine at the University of Virginia and assistant director of family practice education for the Carilion Health System, will become part-time medical director.

Southard's position is full time, said Harry Nickens, president of the college. Both positions are funded from a $1.7million federal grant the college got in 1994 to establish the program to improve health care for residents in rural Southwest Virginia.

The two-year program is scheduled to begin in fall 1997, although some students already are enrolled in prerequisite courses.

Students from Southwest Virginia will be given preference in the program in the hope that they will return to practice in the 19 Southwest counties designated as medically underserved.

Although a supervising doctor has to be within 30 minutes of where a physician assistant is working, a physician assistant can do routine physicals, sew up superficial wounds, and treat hypertension and infections.

Because a physician assistant must practice in collaboration with a doctor, Southard said he and Greenawald want the students to learn in a collaborative setting.

Southard has been at Virginia Tech for the past nine years teaching and maintaining a clinical practice and conducting behavioral medicine research. He will continue to work with Tech colleagues involved in rural health. He also has a clinical assistant professor appointment with the UVa Department of Psychiatric Medicine.

That and Greenawald's connections to UVa, where he graduated, ties the College of Health Sciences' new program to that medical school. UVa had to approve Greenawald's appointment, Nickens said.

Nickens said students in the physician assistant program will be able to interact with doctors who are in UVa residency programs at Carilion hospitals and at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem.

Students at other schools can transfer prerequisites for the program to the College of Health Sciences. But the college also began accepting students in a prerequisite program last fall and will continue to enroll students until Aug. 29, Nickens said.

More information is available by calling 985-8485 in the Roanoke Valley or toll-free from other areas at (888) 985-8483.

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ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  ERIC BRADY Staff. Dr. Douglass Southard (left) and Dr. 
          Mark Greenawald will lead the new two-year physician assistant 
          program at the College of Health Sciences in Roanoke.